Knight, Knave and Squire

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In settings where combat is common and an integral part of the story, a common way to contrast characters is to contrast their attitudes towards combat. This trope is a Power Trio of characters that are distinguished by their attitudes and experiences regarding combat and war.

The Knight is the trained officer or soldier with a more optimistic outlook towards battle. He'll relish the opportunity to defend his lord, country or values in honorable combat. The Knight is frequently an Officer and a Gentleman. The main defining point behind The Knight is that he fights for something else, whether it's his country or his values. Depending on where the story falls on the Sliding Scale of Idealism vs. Cynicism, the Knight can get called out on his idealistic view of combat. Frequently is The Ego or The Superego.

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The Knave is the more pragmatic and cynical warrior. If he has military training, his relationship with The Knight will frequently be Captain Smooth and Sergeant Rough. More frequently, he will have self-taught combat abilities as a mercenary, smuggler, bounty hunter or other warrior. He's pretty much always an Anti-Hero. If he is The Hero, the pragmatism will likely be toned down to make him more likeable. The main defining point behind the Knave is that he fights for himself, at least initially. A badly done Knave can be prone to The Complainer Is Always Wrong. He may be The Id or The Superego.

The Squire is either a noncombatant or someone with little actual experience in fighting. If he's in the military, he will be New Meat, possibly an Ensign Newbie. The Squire is often the Hero in The Hero's Journey, with The Knight and The Knave serving as alternating paths for him to follow. The Squire's inexperience, naïveté and optimism are his defining traits, and he will often look to the Knight and, less often, the Knave as a role model. Often he's The Ego but he can also be The Id.

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Not the same as The Three Faces of Adam, which doesn't specifically apply to combat. The three will often, but not always, fall under one of the other Power Trio tropes. Compare and contrast with The Hecate Sisters, which are mono-gendered tropes displaying the three stages of a person's life. Also compare The Three Faces of Eve, which looks at three different corresponding personalities of women: the Wife corresponding to the Knight, the Seductress corresponding to the Knave, and the Child corresponding to the Squire.

Puella Magi Madoka Magica has one of these in the timelines Homura went though before determining to stop Madoka from becoming a magical girl: Madoka as the Knight, Mami as the Knave, and Homura as the Squire. Especially true once Mami learns the awful truth about Magical Girls and decides the best option is to kill the others and then herself so they won't turn into witches, which results in Madoka having to kill Mami to save Homura's life.

The three protagonists of Samurai Champloo fit the bill. Jin is The Knight, a Ronin Samurai who was taught swordsmanship in a dojo, he is chivalrous and only battles worthy opponents considering everyone else beneath his notice. Mugen is The Knave, and is completely self taught, with a battle style that is all over the place, he's a Combat Pragmatist and has a bad attitude, he'll pretty much fight with anyone. Fuu is The Squire, she has pretty much no fighting abilities and often ends up being a Damsel in Distress.

The main trio of Innocents Shounen Juujigun. Nicolas is a would-be knight with an optimistic outlook on combat, strict morals, and a desire to prove himself through battle. Guy is a former thief with a pragmatic approach, few morals, and loyalty only to himself (at first). Etienne has no combat ability outside of his miracles, and has no desire to fight.

Comic Books

Les Légendaires gives us the Faboulous, a team of heroes consisting in this. The Knight position is assumed by Michi-Gan, a swordman with a serious, responsible attitude and clearly concerned with the sake of his home planet, Alysia. Shaki, a brooding warrior from an extinctedtribe and primarly motivated by revenge, can be considered as the Knave. Finally, Toopie, a kid Genius Girl who possesses no fighting skills and relies on her inventions to fight, serves as the Squire.

The Robins have this dynamic, with Dick as the Knight, Jason as the Knave, and early Tim (and briefly Stephanie) as the Squire. Damian doesn't quite fit, overlapping the Knave and Squire positions and by the time he joined the group has ballooned far beyond the three member limit.

For the three batkids who are the same age; after some disillusionment Tim, Robin III/Red Robin, plays the restrained Knave to Cass, Batgirl II/Blackbat, who is in turn the skilled Knight with Stephanie, Spoiler/Robin IV/Batgirl III, as the Squire. Tim and Cass are both more experienced and more thoroughly trained fighters to Stephanie with each taking a role in her own training, and Tim started to become pragmatic in ways that concerned his allies long before being forced to doff the Robin name.

The Ultimates: Thor is an idealistic warrior; he's a messiah after all. Captain America is a pragmatic fighter and, as long as the cause is justified, does not fear getting his hands dirty. Iron Man is an inventor who relies in his powered armor and his genius, lacking the battle prowess of his peers.

Films — Live-Action

In the firstPirates of the Caribbean movie, Jack is the Knave, Will is the Knight and Elizabeth is the Squire. A defining moment of both Jack and Will's characters is during the sword fight between the two. By the second movie, the dynamic is more or less dropped and they all become Knaves, especially in the third.

This dynamic can also be seen in the first film between Jack (Knave), Will (Squire), and Norrington as the (Knight). Norrington is the straight-laced, experienced naval officer to Will, who is Skilled, but Naïve and inexperienced.

The original trilogy has The Hero Luke Skywalker as the Squire, with Obi-Wan Kenobi and Han Solo as the Knight and Knave, respectively. A key point in Luke's character development in the original movie is when he rejects Han's pragmatism, leading to Han second-guessing his own beliefs.

In the sequel trilogy, Poe Dameron is the Knight, Rey is the Knave, and Finn is the Squire, although Rey as the Knave will be the sequel trilogy's hero.

Though by the end of the trilogy, Poe and Rey arguably switch roles.

Easy Rider has Wyatt as the collected, stoic knight; Billy as the hot-tempered knave; and George as the naive, yet occasionally insightful squire. Given that this film drew a substantial amount of inspiration from classic Westerns (where variations of this trope frequently cropped up), this is not terribly surprising.

Jaws is surprisingly straight in this regard. The Knight, Chief of Police Brody, is bent on ridding Amity Island from a killer shark that ate the son of one of the town goers that blames him for killing him and letting the beaches open for more attacks. He is an experienced police officer. The Knave, Quint, was a former Sailor in the navy who witnessed the deaths of his comrades at the hands of sharks during WWII. He is very much a loner and cynic. Finally Hooper is a book worm oceanographer called in for his expertise on the animal but also proves to have hidden depths of his own.

For a farcical absurdist comedy, The Big Lebowski also plays this trope surprisingly straight. Of the three main characters, Walter Sobchak is the Knight, Jeffrey "The Dude" Lebowski is the Knave, and Donny Kerabatsos is the Squire. Walter is a fiercely-patriotic gun-toting Vietnam veteran who always tackles every problem head-on; The Dude is a laid-back aging hippie who is more inclined to talk his way out of every tough situation; Donny is just an average guy who gets dragged along for the ride, and spends most of the movie completely out of his depth. note In an amusing coincidence, Adam Bertocci's fan tribute Two Gentlemen of Lebowski (which rewrites the movie as a Shakespearean comedy) makes them fit the trope literally: The Dude is reimagined as a ne'er-do-well named "The Knave", Walter is the hot-tempered knight "Sir Walter of Poland", and Donny is his more timid companion "Sir Donald of Greece".

The film version of Deadpool uses this trope, with Deadpool as the Knave, Colossus as the Knight, and Negasonic Teenage Warhead (in her X-man trainee costume) as the Squire.

Literature

In The Dragonlance Chronicles, Sturm is the Knight, Tanis is the Knave (and The Hero), and Caramon, although an experienced warrior from the beginning, is still young, naïve and impulsive.

In Lockwood & Co. Lucy (although already an experienced ghost hunter) is a newcomer to both London and the agency so she acts as Squire, Lockwood is its idealistic and cocky leader (Knight), while George is more careful and research-oriented (Knave).

In Merlin, it is Arthur (The Knight), Gwaine (The Knave) and Merlin (The Squire); (also known as Courage (Arthur), Strength (Gwaine) and Magic (Merlin)).

In George Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire third book, A Storm of Swords, Jaime Lannister, Brienne of Tarth and Cleos Frey journey to King's landing. During this period, Brienne, the idealistic amazon is the knight; the pragmatic Anti-Hero Jaime is the Knave and Cleos Frey is the squire. Since the work is rather pessimistic, you'll probably guess who is often right...

Happens again when Brienne hooks up with squire Podrick Payne and amoral knight Ser Hyle Hunt.

The Baratheon brothers: Robert, the Boisterous Bruiser who sees war as glorious and loves a fight is the Knight; Stannis, the jaded and pragmatic strategist who focuses on tactics and logistics is the Knave; and Renly, the youngest brother whose ideal of battle is tournaments and games is the Squire.

In the show - especially the Blackwater episode - you have the classically trained Sandor Clegane (Knight), an experienced warrior who fights for his King. Then you have Bronn (Knave), a more cynical sellsword who isn't afraid of fighting a little bit dirty and just wants to save himself from being slaughtered. Finally there's Tyrion (Squire), who was thrust into the role of General when Joffrey ran away, and hasn't been in many battles.

The irony in most of these is that the Knight character role is almost never filled by an actual knight: Brienne can't be knighted due to most of Westeros's sexist traditions, while Sandor is eligible but would rather eat live spiders than actually accept it because his actually-knighted older brother is a monster. Meanwhile, both Jaime and Hyle Hunt are knights, but fill the Knave role. Plus, Cleos Frey, who is the Squire in the above set with Brienne and Jaime, is also a knight (albeit not a very effective one).

The characters of The White Company fit this neatly, with Sir Nigel Loring as the Knight, Samkin Aylward as the Knave, and Alleyne Edricsson as the Squire.

The Crowner John Mysteries has Sir John, a knight who cleaves as close to the ideals of chivalry as circumstances allow; Gwyn, his bodyguard and commoner with a far more flexible set of ethics; and Thomas, the non-combatant clerk, who is a coward and a man of letters.

The Citizen Series revolves around three friends who together command the Cutter Stream Militia. Allenson, the leader, is the Knight, leading men in battle with authority and care for those under his command, fighting for the cause of the Cutter Stream Colonies' survival and improvement (he's based on George Washington). Hawthorne is the Knave, an Unscrupulous Hero unafraid to get his hands dirty to directly solve problems that the more idealistic, genteel Allenson and Destry couldn't (such as disposing of a treacherous quartermaster). Destry is the Squire. He's not much of a fighter, but is better-educated than Allenson or Hawthorne and gets tapped to do R&D and intelligence work, once locating a Rider encampment using techniques such as geographic profiling.

Live-Action TV

Blue Bloods: The three Reagans on active duty in the NYPD, particularly in the earlier seasons. Frank is the Knight, the responsible and principled Commissioner. Danny is the Knave, the Cowboy Cop who's willing to bend (if not break) the rules if it means a result he wants. Jamie is the Squire, the New Meat beat cop who's starting out with the NYPD as the series begins.

In Smallville, Clark is the Knight, Oliver is the Knave, and Bart is the Squire (he is rather on the pragmatic side, although he does seem to lack experience).

Star Trek: Voyager has this type of relationship among Janeway, Paris and Kim, with Kim as the wet-behind-the-ears Ensign Newbie, Paris as the pragmatist who's trying to influence Kim and Janeway as the moral beacon for Kim and the rest of the crew.

In a non-military sense, Yes, Minister, with Jim Hacker as the Knight (at least, he likes to think so), Sir Humphrey as the Knave, and Bernard as the Squire.

That does depend a bit on which side is considered "righteous" because both Jim Hacker and Sir Humphrey are pragmatic about their own agendas and both believe that their agenda is the one which is "best for Britain". Humphrey is more Machiavellian, but that's more because he's better at getting what he wants than because what Jim wants is more genuinely altruistic.

Video Games

Advance Wars: Days of Ruin. Brenner is the Knight, Lin is the Knave, Will is the Squire.

In Disgaea: Hour of Darkness, Laharl is the Knight, by Underworld standards at least, Etna the Knave and Flonne is the Squire.

In Kingdom Hearts I, Goofy is the Knight, Donald is the Knave and Sora is the Squire.

The Legend of Dragoon has Lavitz, Dart and Shana as a toned down version with Lavitz as the Knight, being a commander of a Basil Knighthood, Dart being the Knave, having wandered the Earth on a quest for revenge, and Shana as the Squire, having done nothing besides learn how to use a bow. The relationship gets kicked in the pants when Rose joins as she takes over the Knave position and Dart switches roles to the Squire, having the least experience of the three. This dynamic is especially noticeable when Shana is poisoned, leaving the others without her.

One of the most popular squad configurations in the Mass Effect series (and the only one possible across all three games) is Shepard, Garrus, and Tali, which, with a Paragon Shepard, makes them the Knight, Knave, and Squire, respectively.

Radiant Historia has Rosch as Knight, Stocke as Knave (though he's more idealistic than most), and Kiel as Squire.

Touhou: Starting from Undefined Fantastic Object, Reimu is Knight, Marisa is Knave, and the newcomer Sanae is Squire. Sanae is a good girl.

The main characters of Guilty Gear fall into this dynamic. Ky Kiske, the refined, gentlemanly and idealistic Warrior Prince, is a good fit for the Knight. Sol Badguy, the older, more gruff and cynical Bounty Hunter, is the Knave. The young, kind-hearted and mostly non-aggressive Dizzy would be the Squire.

BlazBlue gives us this archetype in the Stooges of Torifune and its core protagonists.

Knight: Jin and Tsubaki. Jin's self-nihilism keeps him from being a pure Knight, but he and Tsubaki are most dedicated to upholding the spirit of law within the world order; Jin in upholding the natural balance (when he's not going crazy-creepy over Ragna), and Tsubaki in the court of man.

Knave: Ragna and Makoto. Both have compassion towards their fellows, but they both rely on overwhelming brute force (Ragna moreso until he was forced to adapt without his Azure Grimoire). Ragna also overwhelmed NOL branches by staging his assaults at night, while Makoto integrates mind games into her combat strategy; if her statement in Central Fiction is any indication, she is not above fighting dirty, either.

Squire: Noel. By far the youngest and least experienced of the trios (and the sole individual common to both groups); she mostly let Bolverk do the fighting until combat with Terumi caused their limiter to malfunction, and she's had to adjust to combat in a natural state since.

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